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Habit Review – Daily Meditation

Days habit missed: One apparently. I thought I’d done it but the run streak measurement on the app says not

Ease of doing daily: Moderate

Equipment required: I used the Headspace app, but you could do it without any equipment. You will need 10 or so quiet minutes though!

Is it something I’ll continue? Not sure

According to the app, I’ve spent 69 hours over 401 sessions (each lasting an average of 10 mins) since I downloaded the app in January last year and I’ve done all the Headspace packs other than pregnancy (which even I didn’t feel compelled to do in the interests of completeness!). As I said back when I started this habit, having dabbled with mediation over the couple of months leading up to making this a habit, I wasn’t sure whether I was going to fall in love with it or not. But give me my due, I’ve done a full year of daily meditation, so no one can question my commitment to giving it a go!

The review of this habit has come at an interesting point for me, as I’ve been reflecting a bit recently on how I feel and everything I’ve got on. Our lecture day this month was all about stress and the physiological effects. It was a bit of a lightbulb moment for me, because although I’m not at the point of the anxiety and depression I had CBT for at the start of last year, I realised that a lot of how I feel is probably a result of prolonged stress – the sugar cravings, the omnipresent knot in my stomach etc. I’ve always been one of those people who finds it hard to relax and I know that some of my stress is self-induced as I hold myself up to high standards. I’d also admit that thrive on this to an extent, when people tell me I’m superwoman or that they don’t know how I fit it in, it sort of validates everything, when of course I should be getting that validation from within.

Anyway, I could waffle on about this for a while, but there are a few things that I want to think about. I drew up a vision for what I’d like my life to be like a while ago and I’ve lost sight of this a bit, caught up in the daily grind. So, every day admin aside, I need to think about whether what I do is contributing to moving me towards my goals or just “noise”. I’ve meditated every day for the last year as one of my habits as it felt like a good thing to do, but the reality is it feels like just another thing that I need to get done every evening. So whilst I don’t want to give up entirely or stop being more mindful, I don’t think I need to do it every day. It’s a few days since I stopped the daily practice, and I have to say, it’s felt quite liberating!